At our meeting in the Department of Education and Skills, Marlborough Street, today, parents Jennie Maynard and Brian Buckley (also a parent representative on our school's Board of Management), TD Eamonn Maloney of Labour and I met with the Minister for Education's advisor.
The meeting was very positive and we were informed that:
the DES is looking at several site options for our school
the DES will not disclose sites until contracts are signed
the site at Oldcourt opposite the new Lidl is NOT an option for our school
the DES and SDCC held a meeting yesterday (June 11th 2014) and both are now agreed that the Oldcourt site is zoned for future development in 10 to 15 years time and is off the agenda for our school
SDCC are negotiating with the DES to secure a suitable site for our school
the DES hopes to announce news of a site for our school within a 3 to 6 month time frame
despite spending a lot on Tymon Bawn Community Centre this year (to put toilets into classrooms etc), this expenditure will not influence the DES' Planning Department's decision for location of our school at the end of the 2014-2015 school year
Firhouse Educate Together will spend only one more year (2014 - 2015 school year) in Tymon Bawn Community Centre
the worst case scenario will be our school opening in pre-fabs on its permanent site in September 2015
In addition when I invited Niall to visit our school in September / October he said he'd love to. So we have a date with him and who knows....... he may well have some news for us by then.
We were all left with the impression that the site issue is firmly on the agenda of the relevant people within DES now and that Eamon Maloney, who has a lot more experience than we have in dealing with the dept officials was also impressed at the positive tone of the meeting.
So, well done to everyone on creating such a wonderful atmosphere at our coffee morning which inspired TD Eamonn Maloney of Labour to make a promise to Jennie that he'd do his best to set up a meeting with the DES. He has followed through on his promise as has Senator Cáit Keane on tabling a motion in the Seanad and Firhouse Educate Together is now a topic of conversation at the highest levels.
What a result! And we're such a small group of people and our school is less than a year old........ can you imagine what we'll achieve in the future????
Very best regards,
Collette
Principal Firhouse Educate Together National School
The meeting was very positive and we were informed that:
the DES is looking at several site options for our school
the DES will not disclose sites until contracts are signed
the site at Oldcourt opposite the new Lidl is NOT an option for our school
the DES and SDCC held a meeting yesterday (June 11th 2014) and both are now agreed that the Oldcourt site is zoned for future development in 10 to 15 years time and is off the agenda for our school
SDCC are negotiating with the DES to secure a suitable site for our school
the DES hopes to announce news of a site for our school within a 3 to 6 month time frame
despite spending a lot on Tymon Bawn Community Centre this year (to put toilets into classrooms etc), this expenditure will not influence the DES' Planning Department's decision for location of our school at the end of the 2014-2015 school year
Firhouse Educate Together will spend only one more year (2014 - 2015 school year) in Tymon Bawn Community Centre
the worst case scenario will be our school opening in pre-fabs on its permanent site in September 2015
In addition when I invited Niall to visit our school in September / October he said he'd love to. So we have a date with him and who knows....... he may well have some news for us by then.
We were all left with the impression that the site issue is firmly on the agenda of the relevant people within DES now and that Eamon Maloney, who has a lot more experience than we have in dealing with the dept officials was also impressed at the positive tone of the meeting.
So, well done to everyone on creating such a wonderful atmosphere at our coffee morning which inspired TD Eamonn Maloney of Labour to make a promise to Jennie that he'd do his best to set up a meeting with the DES. He has followed through on his promise as has Senator Cáit Keane on tabling a motion in the Seanad and Firhouse Educate Together is now a topic of conversation at the highest levels.
What a result! And we're such a small group of people and our school is less than a year old........ can you imagine what we'll achieve in the future????
Very best regards,
Collette
Principal Firhouse Educate Together National School
